Key Findings: Cost-Effective Interventions to Prevent Unintentional Injuries in Low- and Middle-Income Countries| Injury | Promising interventions | Interventions shown to be effective in low- and middle-income countries (references) |
| Road traffic injuries (RTIs) | Reducing motor vehicle traffic: efficient fuel taxes, changes in land-use policy, safety impact assessment of transportation and land-use plans, provision of shorter and safer routes, trip reduction measures | Increasing the legal age of motorcyclists from 16 to 18 years (Norghani and others 1998) |
| Making greater use of safer modes of transport | |
| Minimizing exposure to high-risk scenarios: restricting access to different parts of the road network, giving priority to higher occupancy vehicles or to vulnerable road users, restricting the speed and engine performance of motorized two-wheelers, increasing the legal age for operating a motorcycle, using graduated driver's licensing systems | |
| Safer roads | |
| Safety awareness in planning road networks, safety features in road design, and remedial action in high-risk crash sites: making provisions for slow-moving traffic and vulnerable road users; providing passing lanes, median barriers, and street lighting. | |
| Traffic calming measures, such as speed bumps | |
| Speed cameras | Speed bumps in reducing pedestrian injuries (Afukaar, Antwi, and Ofusu-Amah 2003) |
| Safer vehicles | |
| Improving the visibility of vehicles, including requiring automatic daytime running lights | Daytime running lights on motorcycles (Radin Umar, Mackay, and Hills 1996; Yuan 2000) |
| Incorporating crash protective design into vehicles, including installing seat belts | |
| Mandating vehicle licensing and inspection | |
| Safer people | Increases in fines and suspension of driver's licenses (Poli de Figueiredo and others 2001) |
| Legislating strategies and increasing enforcement of, for example, speed limits, alcohol-related limits, hours of driving for commercial drivers, seat belt use, bicycle and motorcycle helmet use | Legislation and enforcement of motorcycle helmets (Ichikawa, Chadbunchachai, and Marui 2003; Supramaniam, Belle, and Sung 1984). |
| Poisonings | Better storage, including positioning and nature of storage vessels | Free distribution of child-resistant containers (Krug and others 1994) |
| Use of child-resistant containers | |
| Warning labels | |
| First-aid education | |
| Poison control centers | |
| Fall-related injuries | Older people | |
| Muscle strengthening and balance retraining, individually prescribed | |
| Tai chi group exercise | |
| Home hazard assessment and modification for high-risk individuals | |
| Multidisciplinary, multifactorial screening for health and environmental risk factors | |
| Younger people | |
| Multifaceted community programs of the Children Can't Fly type | |
| Burn-related injuries | Fire-related injuries | |
| Introducing programs to install smoke alarms | |
| Separating cooking areas from living areas | |
| Locating cooking surfaces at heights | |
| Reducing the storage of flammable substances in households | |
| Supervising children more effectively | |
| Introducing, monitoring, and enforcing standards and codes for fire-resistant garments | |
| Scald-related injuries | |
| Separating cooking areas from play areas | |
| Improving the design of cooking vessels | |
| Fire- and scald-related injuries | |
| Increasing awareness of burns prevention | |
| Providing first-aid education | |
| Drowning | Limiting exposure to bodies of water close to dwellings, such as by fencing | |
| Providing learn-to-swim programs | |
| Providing education about risks for drowning | |
| Increasing supervision and providing lifeguards at recreational facilities | |
| Equipping boats with flotation devices and ensuring their use | |
| Legislating and enforcing rules about the numbers of individuals carried on boats | |
| Having trained and responsive coast guard services | |
